Fly Away for Less

Just how do you get hold of a plane ticket to the UK easily and cheaply? We put our intrepid reporter on to the case.

Just how do you get hold of a plane ticket to the UK easily and cheaply? We put our intrepid reporter on to the case.

I was recently tasked with finding flights back to the UK in Mid May 2007. My task was:

To find 2 one-way tickets to a Southern UK airportTo land in the UK before midnight – no red-eye flights for usTo be as cheap as possibleWith a reasonable luggage allowance, andAny extra’s such as a meal.

A simple task you would think? Let’s see how we got on.

Being an efficient (lazy) person I like to do as much as I can from the comfort of my home. The truth is that I detest wandering around Fethiye travel agents in the heat of the day. So I like use the internet and phone to do my shopping around.

My first call was to the Flythomascook website (click the link below to be taken to their website).

They offer one-way flights from Dalaman to various UK regional and London airports. I found their website slow and it took several aborted attempts before I could find the flight I wanted. Perseverance was the name of the game here. Anyway, my perseverance paid off and I eventually got a price from Dalaman to Exeter airport. The quote included a whole host of extras which the site had ‘helpfully’ added including an in-flight meal, donation to charity and extra 5kgs of luggage allowance. Moreover, because the flight I was booking was less than 2 weeks away from departure the company were also adding a further £15 for collecting tickets on departure! And there was me thinking that this was an e-ticket service – just print the tickets and go! Still the overall price was only £54 – tempting. Note – feedback I have received says that Dalaman do accept the printed confirmation as a valid ticket so don’t waste time wandering around Dalaman airport to find a ticket office as it just doesn’t exist. Just go straight to the check-in and present your ticket confirmation!

My next call was

They fly twice weekly from Dalaman to Gatwick. The price one way was around £100 for the time I wanted and food and drinks were included along with a 25kg luggage allowance.

Turkish-Cyprus Airlines – They fly from Dalaman to London. Their flights worked out around £125 one way, too much for me.

Thomson Fly – An easy to use website and fairly quick. However, you’ll need to keep your eye on the bookings page as it doesn’t confirm the date of travel just before you click the confirm booking button. Still, this worked out to be the cheapest for a one way flight to Bristol. It was only £40 all in and included 25kgs luggage allowance (including hand luggage), an in flight meal and the charge for using a credit/debit card to make payment. {mosimage}The company also uses an e-ticket system so once you’ve booked you just present your email confirmation when you check in with your passport and that’s it! Note – keep an eye on the credit/debit card charges. The credit card charge in my case was based on a 2% levy on the total bill – £0.80 but the debit card charge was a flat fee of £1.75!

A local Dalaman based company Yabanci Services also offer an easy to use service. Book via their local office and you can pick tickets up from their booth in the departure lounge at Dalaman airport. However, on this occasion a quick email to info@yabanciservices.com confirmed only that they had only limited or unsuitable (read early morning) flights back to the UK for the times I wanted. They were more expensive too averaging around £100 one-way.

So, on the basis of price, luggage allowance, e-ticket, ease of use and extra’s I booked with Thomson Fly this time. For only £40 it was the bargain trip of the month!

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